Anyone been diving in a really strange place?

[diveguy1]

Rock quarries, under the ice, cenotes, caves, shipwrecks - people dive those places all the time.

But has anyone dived in any other unusual, unique places? Inside an oil tanker? A aquarium with poisonous jellyfish? Under a busy ferry terminal at rush hour? Sewage treatment plant?

Just wondering...

- Chris

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[jridg]

One of the most interesting I had was a lake cleanup in New Orleans - we dove Lake Ponchartrain. NOT recommended for the faint of heart. We were diving near the causeway because that's where people chuck all their trash. I was diving with the instructor I worked with and we realized as soon as we descended that there was zero vis - I Am not talking an inch or two - I mean ZERO vis - it was literally like diving at night with your eyes closed. We each had a bag for trash and what we did was use one arm to hold onto the other guy's BC - swam along the bottom sweeping the other arm to try and find trash - when one of us found something, we would tug on the other guy - he would continue to hold on and we would bag the trash by feel - then signal we could continue. It was an experience I will never forget - not sure I would ever want to do it again - but it was certainly interesting.

 

[sam1]

Perhaps not exactly what you had in mind, but for me the most unique was N E M O 33

 

[lmorin]

Well, not exactly diving, but one Thanksgiving, an ancient pipe burst underground on our property behind our house. Sort of typical for our 1834 home. Besides a $600 water bill for the month (the town refused to turn off the main because their equipment was so old they thought it would break and create an even bigger problem), I spent way too much time underwater in a hole I dug around the pipe, holding my breath first while cutting the pipe with a hacksaw, then trying to plug the flow. The water was a balmy 55 compared to the 35 deg. air temp. That's the closest I've come to being a commercial diver, I guess.

 

[mudhole]

Long ago, one of my dive partners was called to dive into a vat of Coca Cola syrup. . . A worker had dropped a wrench into the vat, and it jammed the valve closed. The plant manager "required" him to wear a wetsuit. . . thinking that to be clean. The dive lasted less than 5 minutes and was difficult to swim through, but the bottom of the tank made it easy to find the wrench and return to the surface. My friend never drank a coke again. And his wetsuit smelled like coke for years.

 

[Gary D.]

As an old Navy diver and being a PSD for the past 33 years you may not want to know where and for what. :shocked2: There has been a very wide variety between a shipboard Navy Crude tank dive, some very nice warm clear interesting dives and a couple above the arctic circle.

The two I want to do are in a reactor and Antarctica .

Gary D.

 

[Nemrod]

A well in Valdosta Georgia. It went through to a small cavern, essentially a siphon.

N

 

[Gary D.]

A well in Valdosta Georgia. It went through to a small cavern, essentially a siphon.

N

I had to go 30+' inside a 36" lake intake pipe for the fire districts water pump to cut off a 1" pipe. They thought I was nuts when I pulled the pumps circut breaker, put it in my drysuit and placed my own padlock on the door. I even had the key with me. They can think nuts all day long but I didn't end up as part of the water system.

Gary D.

 

[Doc]

Amen to Gary D.

How about that Nuclear Reactor cooling tank? It's called "jump diving". Train for four months and work the job for 2 minutes.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07018/754860-96.stm

I still have that certain glow about me.

There have been worse places, but that was the most unusual.

 

[SteveAD]

Inside a water tower to do an inspection. Access hatch was so small I had to lower my rig in then climb in after it.